The present invention relates to a toilet room flush valve for use on urinals and water closets and more specifically to such a flush valve suitable for use in institutions, such as a prison. In a prison environment it is not unknown for those persons having urinals or water closets in their living quarters to cause unnecessary operation of a flush valve. This is not only wasteful of water, but is a subtle form of vandalism. The present invention provides a manual button for use by an individual to signal that a flush valve should be operated. Movement of this manual element is detected by an electronic sensor and provides a signal to an electrical control. The electrical control decides when and how often the flush valve will actually be operated and will cause operation of an electrical actuator on the flush valve.
The present invention specifically allows a totally manual fixture to be retrofitted for electronic operation without the necessity of re-piping the supply and vacuum breaker tubes which are normally connected to the flush valve. The purpose of the present invention is to easily convert a manual prison or institutional flush valve to an electronically activated flushometer in which electronics are used to process an input actuating signal, resulting from a manual operation, allowing the institution to program restrictions to flushing the fixture.
The present invention is particularly advantageous in that the existing flush valve body can be used and no water lines need to be broken or removed from the installed fixture. Existing flush valve bodies in this type of installation have two openings, one of which provides for the manual operating lever or push button currently being used. The other opening will provide access for an electronic sensor which will detect movement of the plunger actuated by the push button. The detection of this movement in turn will be electrically connected to a control circuit which in turn will determine when the electric actuator in the flush valve body will be utilized.
The present invention relates to flush valves for use in operating toilets, water closets and urinals and more specifically to flush valves for use in an institutional or prison environment.
The invention is specifically directed to a flush valve which may be retrofitted, without any change in water connections, from totally manual operation to a hybrid electrical/manual operation.
Another purpose of the invention is to provide a flush valve for the described environment in which there is an electronic sensor to detect manual actuation of the flush valve, with the electronic sensor being connected to an electrical control circuit which controls operation of the flush valve through an electrical actuator.
Other purposes will appear in the ensuing specification, drawings and claims.